Monday, December 18, 2006

Meat, Meat, and More Meat

This really is turning out to be quite the carnivorous trip. Here's yet another plate of random cuts of barbequed meat, although this time I was able to grab a picante version of chimichurri to go with some of this. It was much more sour than it was spicy though, and reminded me a bit of giardiniera (they also had a couple no picante versions, but those were basically just sour). I thus went ahead without the chimichurri on these pieces.

One other interesting thing to note is that most of the meat in these parts is generally cooked all the way through, which one might imagine to be quite blasphemous, especially with a tougher exterior created as a result. But there was enough fat and salt content in the chorizo and ribs that it didn't really matter...the burnt edges combined with the fat and salt actually tasted pretty good. In fact, it kinda seemed like a cross between beef jerky and bacon, if there were such a thing. Granted, this was a bit of a tourist trap that we ate at, but it still all went down quickly.

After so many days of eating straight meat though, I am admittedly getting a bit tired of it (something I never thought I would say). So I grabbed a quick pizza tonight. Why come all the way over here to get Italian food? Because there is a huge Italian population here, making Italian a good alternative to Argentinean meat, especially if you are of the anti-Atkins persuasion. I grabbed a simple margherita pizza, which did the job with a light (if slightly undercooked) crust and a healthy dose of olive oil drizzled on top. It may not have been Italy (and was a bit on the salty side too), but it was one of the better ones that I've had, and perhaps more importantly, I was very relieved to not be eating meat again. Note to self: next time you come down to Argentina, be sure to purge yourself clean of all meat for one week in advance such that you don't get sick of it so quickly again!

2 comments:

Jaded
said...

I recently visited Espetus Churrascaria in San Francisco, CA. If you're a strict carnivore, you'll love this place. I found it to be too meaty and bland. Sure there was a variety of chicken, lamb and beef... but there wasn't much in the way of varying flavor. Fortunately, there were a bunch of nice sides to go along with the meat and that definitely made up for it.

It looks like you've been enjoying the bounty of meats on this trip, so if you're ever in SF again, try out Espetus (http://espetus.com/).

You scared me for a second there. I thought that you were referring to Cafe do Brazil, a rather forgettable churrascaria that is also on Market Street (at least, when I was there about six years ago). Hopefully Espetus is heaps better? Well, churrasco is one of my primary reasons for coming down to Brazil, so stay tuned.